Xander System And The Blitz

9...Poor boy in a rich place...

The music in Jeremy's car was loud, and Jeremy's voice was even louder as he happily rapped along with the artist playing.

He glanced at Alec to flash him a smile but only caught something else on his face, something that looked like he would soon start lamenting about the ear busting music.

Jeremy lowered the volume of the music a little, and more importantly, he stopped rapping.

"You got a store in mind?" He asked as the music now played at a normal level for Alec.

"I don't know, man," Alec replied. "You choose"

"Okay," Jeremy grinned. "You know I would have loved us to hit that Sapphire store, but the prices of their stuffs there are really scary, could almost make you pass out in fear, so I'm choosing Ceecyx Department store"

"Ceecyx department store" Alec repeated thoughtfully.

"Yeah" Jeremy mumbled.

Thirty hours.

And now, Alec had less than thirty hours.

"So you said Sapphire is more expensive, yeah?" Alec asked aloud, some ideas already forming in his mind.

"It could give you an instant heart attack, and I'm not even joking" Jeremy replied.

Alec gave a thoughtful nod. "Let's go there."

"What?" Jeremy almost stepped on the brake.

"I said let's go to that Sapphire Department store" Alec said without blinking.

Jeremy frowned "No."

"Yes."

"Alec, no!" Jeremy disagreed sharply. "We can't go there because the things there are super expensive, and we are gonna be spending too much and still never get anything useful.... don't you understand?" His voice dropped on the last sentence.

"We can actually go there. You don't have to be scared of the prices" Alec told him calmly.

Jeremy squeezed his brows tightly. "Alright, Alec, I'm gonna ask you one thing..." He cleared his throat "You...you know what you doing?"

"Yes." Alec answered quickly with a solid voice "I want us to get our stuff at the Sapphire Department Store and I'll pay for both mine and yours"

"Oh really?" Jeremy's eyes were wide. "You wanna get a heart attack and die, is that it? Is that your plan now?"

"What, no!" Alec turned to him, his expression serious and determined. "I have the money and I want to spend it, is that a bad thing?"

"Man, you're really serious about this" Jeremy said, glancing at Alec's face. "You got lucky again?"

Alec smiled. "Yeah,"

Thirty hours....

"I think" He added.

Jeremy thought about that for a moment before giving a slow nod and a grin "Okay."

He started turning up the volume on the rap song, his grin even wider now.

****

"This place smells like soap" Jeremy commented, his nose scrunched up.

Alec chuckled. "Smells like expensive perfume to me..." He looked around. "And money"

"I swear to God, breathing here is gonna cost money"

Alec laughed, and people turned to stare at him.

Just a few days ago, he wouldn't have dared to step into a place like this, not even to ask for a job. He would be thrown out before he could say a word.

Today, he was here, strolling with confidence even when people stared at him with mistrust. He guessed they allowed him in because Jeremy looked rich and they probably assumed he would be the one paying the bills.

Funny how it was actually the other way around.

Alec— dressed in an old, faded, light shirt with overworn jeans, and a pair of old sneakers that looked like they were begging for their lives—would be the one paying the bills, not Jeremy as people had thought.

Jeremy saw the over priced perfumes neatly arranged on the shelf.  He quickly stepped closer to Alec "Okay, listen, I'm not tryna mock you or anything, alright?" He whispered quickly "But are you sure you can afford all these things?"

"Trust me, okay?" Alec said confidently, picking up more expensive products and dropping them into the shopping cart.

Jeremy whistled. "You even got a cart, not a basket"

Alec only smiled without saying a word back.

Jeremy eyed the cart and started doing a rough mental calculation of the items Alec had picked.

"It's over ten thousand now, and that's minus my stuff" He muttered to himself. "And he's still picking more." He grinned "Dude really got lucky"

Alec looked around and kept picking anything that looked nice, tossing it into the cart.

"I don't think I've heard of this brand before" Jeremy commented, eyeing the shelf.

"I haven't heard of any of these brands here" Alec said truthfully with a grin.

"And I don't even know what half of these things are for" Jeremy muttered.

Alec smirked "Doesn't matter. We are gonna be buying them all to see what they are used for"

"Why not just buy the whole store?"

Alec chuckled at Jeremy's joke and reached for another product but stopped before he could even touch it. "Why not just buy the whole store?" He parroted Jeremy's words in a mumble, then his eyes widened. "Oh my God..."

"A gold glassy comb for a man? That's a disaster..." Jeremy groaned. "Who would even want to buy such a ridiculous comb?"

Alec went to meet Jeremy, took the ridiculous comb and tossed it into the cart.

"You're gonna buy everything" Jeremy said with a grimace.

"I will" Alec told him with confidence.

Jeremy chortled.

Alec sighed quietly "I'm gonna buy the store"

Jeremy saw the seriousness in Alec. "T....the store"

"The store, yes. I'm gonna buy it" Alec confirmed, unblinking.

Jeremy waited, expecting him to laugh and say that it was a joke or a prank or anything like that, but nothing like that happened. Alec didn't flinch, didn't drop his serious expression.

Jeremy looked around the expensive store and coughed quickly. "Don't play with me, Alec" He cleared his throat noisily. "You really wanna buy this store?"

Alec smiled about to reply when a voice boomed.

"Well, well..."

Alec and Jeremy looked at where the voice came from and saw one of the school bullies, Chad.

"Oh, God, not this guy" Alec grumbled.

"I hate him too" Jeremy said under his breath. "And his two dogs"

"I hate all of them" Alec said with annoyance. "They surrounded me in the school hallway like stupid hyenas" His jaw clenched as remembered that day. "They kicked me to the ground and stepped on me, saying my worn out shoes irritated them"

Alec's fist clenched, the veins in his hand bulging.

"The poor boy in a.... rich place like this. Oooh, look at that"  Chad taunted and his 'guys' laughed. "So, what are you doing here?" He clicked his tongue mockingly "Stealing some shampoos now?"

Jeremy stepped forward, his jaw tight, but Alec grabbed his arm to pull him back. "I got this"

He took a deep breath and faced the pompous, narcissistic jerks. "Now, let's begin, shall we?"